Crwthod
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Maleeha Vincent
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Tarrabyte
I watched this as a kid and I loved it. It was actually not easy to find again considering it's age. This teenager, who sells everything he can on Ubid (at the time it was actually a thing 02), is saving up for a car. While going through his father's old junk from down stairs, he stumbles upon an old wooden box that he knocks off a shelf. In the box is a watch. When he presses a button on the watch it "slows down time" not actually stopping it. Moving so fast thru time, accelerating at the speed of a hummingbirds wing flapping, (google it). His father had explained what it does at one point but not explaining in full detail but calling it "Hypertime.His father is the main creator of the watch and knows how to duplicate it but says instead (like all movies) "What would happen if this got into the wrong hands?"As he figures out the watch, a group of men want it to use for their own purpose. (go figure the bad guys). As the teenager uses the watch, he also learns of it's side affects. When in Hypertime, the body is actually accelerating at hyperspeed as well, causing the cells of the body to age faster. 1 minute in reality is close to something like 5 or 10 minutes. 1 hour? almost something close to 2 days or more. As for a story line, a "hero" like based movie, this is a really good movie and deserves a 2nd film but never happened. If you like the concept of Time manipulation you will like this movie.
Finfrosk86
Clockstoppers isn't exactly great film making. But it just so happens that I love one thing more than I love anything else, pretty much, and that is the thought of being able to stop time.Actually I love slo-mo, super slo-mo, time freeze, bullet-time, all that. I first saw bullet-time (as in time freezing and the camera panning around) in an animal documentary once, I remember it totally blowing my mind. And of course, we all know The Matrix made it very popular. And lots of other movies following. And then comes Clockstoppers, a whole movie about just that one thing! I'm in heaven!Well, alright, the movie isn't super great, and the time freeze effects aren't super good, but I still think it gets the job done. I love putting myself in their place, being able to stop time! The possibilities! (Mohahaha!)The movie is pretty decent though, it's has some exciting parts, it's a pretty short and rather entertaining thing, the story isn't half bad either. It has one very silly scene that totally goes against the rules it has set for it self, but this is a movie for the younger crowd, so you know. There are plot holes here, but children wont care!
Andy (film-critic)
"Clockstoppers" is one of those simple PG plots which involves a boy, a watch, and no need to corrupt the system. A kid, unlike you or I, finds a watch from his super-genius father that can literally slow down time (actually, speed up his molecules so that time seems to be going slower). Instead of stay in that time forever, growing old and experiencing the powers of "invisibility", he uses it to win over the heart of an unknown girl and stop the world from catapulting into utter annihilation. Yep, something I would do if I could stop time. Like any other film of this nature, I am sure you know what ultimately happens in the end. Helmed by "Star Trek's" very own Jonathan Frakes, "Clockstoppers" boasts the talents of Jesse Bradford, Michael Biehn, and French Stewart – with a cast like this, who needs enemies. Using amazing CGI to bring this story from the page, where Frakes falls short are the characters and his inability to grapple with the technology he is filming. I am not going to cover my issues with the molecular speed-up, because I am sure they have been nauseatingly been said before, but they did force you to consider the unmentioned possibilities. Why wasn't this whole film done with slowed time? How could some inanimate objects fly through the air in slow time, while others fit into the pattern of going slow? Why didn't Bradford fall through the floor? Age issues – don't make me go there! Again, this could be a whole topic of conversation, but instead, lets talk about the other pivotal downfalls of this film, and how they related to me feeling decent after watching this.I must admit, Frakes does a decent job behind the camera. He has learned from his acting lessons and can tell a complete story. Without the science fiction plot holes, the story itself for "Clockstoppers" was pretty cliché, yet straight forward. He didn't try to overdo it, while his actors might have attempted to gobble every line they could, Frakes kept the story simple and the CGI impressive. I have to applaud him for his work here, he could have made this a very dark story, but instead kept it suitable for a teen audience. This wasn't the original "Agent Cody Banks" in any way, but it did attempt to stand on its own, and I must applaud Frakes for his attempt. The acting, as mentioned before, was horrid. French Stewart was possibly at the lowest point of his career with this film. His attempt to be a honest scientist was goofy at best. He was never mad, just loony with his approach to this character. Jesse Bradford was middle of the road. Consistent with the standards of this film, he never went above where we wanted him to be. Oddly, his Ebay selling reminded me of another character from "Transformers", but I don't want to think the two films plagiarized. Julia Sweeny, well, just don't make me go down that tunnel. Paula Garces was middle of the road as well, she played off Bradford with ease because there was nothing they needed to attach themselves to. Could I be any more vague? When I finished watching this movie, I wasn't feeling upset or happy about the results – this was a mediocre film, and I can applaud it for staying within that genre.Sometimes I listen to music half my age – this film is a prime example of music that is half my age. There was an attempt to take it even further up the tween channel by employing the music of Blink 182 to heavily dominate the scenes of joy, empowerment, or victory. There was the overuse of Smash Mouth, which seems to plague every tween movie today – but oddly, that was allowed this time. Typically, I find myself yelling about how one-sided these releases tend to be. Focusing their marking towards a singular audience instead of just pushing the boundaries, but with "Clockstoppers" I felt their average outing calmed me. It worked I shouldn't have worked, but it did. Frakes subdued me, and I cannot argue with him. The special features surrounding this film were pathetic as well, staged "behind the scenes" which only showed how "fun" a film like this could be – it was disgusting. The music videos didn't fit, and the Saturday Morning interruptions also included were vile as well. See this language, yet I am going to give this film at least three stars. See, Frakes did dupe me.Overall, I gotta stop this review before I stick myself in a deeper hole. Agents with no names, bad villains bent on total domination using everything in their arsenal outside of the weapon of choice, a cool watch that may have sold well over the holidays, and plot holes the size of Miami. I hate these features on a film, but again, "Clockstoppers" filled a hour and a half of couch time well for me. I never laughed, but I never got bored with this story. Call me a quitter or a lackey to the cause, but "Clockstoppers" never came out of its shell, and I am happy for that. It was pathetic, but delightful in the same sense. I cannot suggest this movie to friends, but if it rained one afternoon and we needed something to kill the time – I think "Clockstoppers" would find its way back to the DVD player! Thank you Frakes – you duped me again! Grade: *** out of *****
TxMike
I am a sucker for science fiction movies. One of my favorites (along with about a billion others) is 'Back To The Future.' As soon as I started watching 'Clockstoppers' I felt that it had a 'Back To The Future' feel to it. Watching the extras on the DVD, those in the movie thought so too. However there is no comparison. This movie uses a group of B-grade actors and a great, novel concept of certain persons becoming able to greatly speed up their time, rendering the world and people around comparatively in extremely slow motion. The problem starts right after that great concept is introduced, as the writer and director were not able to develop any substantial story line to go along with it. The result is a cute, mostly fun little movie that uses the hyper time mode for silly things, and when it is all over we realize the hyper time concept was the entire movie, with a silly script strapped on to make it look like a movie. I was highly entertained by the hyper time concept, I was mostly bored with the story surrounding it.SPOILERS -- We get the first glimpse that something is askew when a highly disguised Dr Doppler (great name!) is trying to get quickly onto a plane for Central America, only to get invisibly jerked off the tarmac platform right before boarding. Later we figure out that it was the two bad guys operating in hyper time, moving so fast they couldn't be seen. A professor had invented the circuitry, disguised as a watch, the government was realizing the hazard of this getting into enemy hands and not wanting to terminate the project, the bad guys need Dr Doppler to finish the design, because as it stood everyone operating in hyper time ages very rapidly, which defeats part of the purpose. The professor's son accidently gets the watch, figures out how to use it, helps his friend win a DJ contest, foils a bike theft, gets back at an over-eager meter maid, and various silly uses for such a fabulous technology. In the end, of course, the bad guys are foiled, and the professor's son drives away in his new Mustang, and goes into hyper time as the cops chase him. he had kept one of the watches!
